Honey Bee Genetic Stock Determines Deformed Wing Virus Symptom Severity but not Viral Load or Dissemination Following Pupal Exposure.

ABSTRACT: Honey bees exposed to Varroa mites incur substantial physical damage in addition to potential exposure to vectored viruses such as Deformed wing virus (DWV) that exists as three master variants (DWV-A, DWV-B, and DWV-C) and recombinants. Although mite-resistant bees have been primarily bred to mitigate the impacts of Varroa mites, mite resistance may be associated with increased tolerance or resistance to the vectored viruses. The goal of our study is to determine if five honey bee stocks (Carniolan, Italian, Pol-Line, Russian, and Saskatraz) differ in their resistance or tolerance to DWV based on prior breeding for mite resistance. We injected white-eyed pupae with a sublethal dose (10⁵) of DWV or exposed them to mites and then evaluated DWV levels and disseminati

SUBMITTER: Penn HJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9204523 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature